Since August 25, a Washington, D.C. jury had been deliberating the fate of Lauren Handy, Herb Geraghty, Heather Idoni, William Goodman, and John Hinshaw. The Daily Signal notes that they were charged with conspiracy against rights and violation of the FACE Act. They were found guilty on Tuesday.
The charges stem from an October 2020 incident in which the defendants, who are members of the progressive anti-abortion group Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), went to a D.C. abortion clinic. In a video made by the Thomas More Society, which is representing the group, Senior Counsel Martin Cannon stated that the protestors went to the clinic because its members, led by Handy, believed that the babies were being born alive and then left to die. He referred to the defendants as likable, truthful, honorable, and decent. He referred to the state’s charges as overburdensome and unnecessary, adding that there were other adequate charges that could have been used. That video appears to have been made immediately after the jury went into deliberation.
According to the Thomas More Society, on October 22, 2020, Handy and the others in her group arrived at a D.C. clinic run by Cesare Santangelo, who the Society says is known for practicing late-term abortions. The Signal stated that in March of 2022, Handy and another PAAU member located the bodies of five preemie-sized babies in a box of remains outside of Santangelo’s clinic, along with more than a hundred “pulverized remains of first trimester babies.” The D.C. police said that it appeared that the babies had been aborted legally, but the case was under investigation. The Society said, “Santangelo’s Washington-Surgi facility in Washington, D.C. has long been the subject of controversy and suspicion, with reason to believe that the late-term abortionist was leaving born-alive infants without care. This is integral to understanding Lauren’s motive that day in October 2020.”
Related: WATCH: Sickening Pro-abortion Thug Brutally Beats Elderly Men, Blinding One
Hardy was inspired by this 2013 video by Live Action that featured a conversation with Santangelo:
On the day in October, some protestors knelt in prayer. Others offered pro-life literature and counseling to the women at the clinic. Others chained or roped themselves together. That resulted in charges by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice.
In his closing argument, Cannon noted that at no time was access to the clinic impeded. He even added that the ropes and chains were at ground level. In essence, the protestors may have been disruptive, but they did not keep anyone from entering the clinic. Cannon stated:
In order to be guilty of conspiracy, you can’t just plan an event. You have to have an agreement that involves breaking the law. How can we have a conspiracy to violate FACE when most of the parties to the so-called agreement aren’t going to do it?
They’re going to do conventional sit-in kind of stuff—just like Martin Luther King has a federal holiday for—that doesn’t necessarily break FACE. How do you have a conspiracy to violate FACE when the supposed organizers don’t even know what people are going to be doing? How do you have a conspiracy to violate FACE when everyone is told to just follow his conscience; when people are told to risk arrest or don’t risk arrest? It’s up to you. How do you have a conspiracy to violate FACE when the performance of the so-called agreement could result in everybody blocking or nobody blocking?
There was only one thing around which these people were unified, and that was nonviolence. They conspired to be peaceful.
He closed with:
This case involves a fundamental issue that raises passions on both sides, but we have laws. We have the FACE Act, which has carefully chosen words that prescribe specific conduct and leaves much of what we see in this case unaffected.
We also have the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof; those last two being important to protect the weak from the powerful. That’s not just important to Lauren Handy; it’s important to all of us.
Hold those laws close, and we trust you to make the right decision. Thank you.
Cannon makes an excellent point. MLK has been rightly honored for protests similar to this one. Climate protestors who engage in such acts are routinely praised by legacy media. BLM protestors have been not only lionized but compensated not just for protesting but for rioting, looting, and burning. The very laurels reserved for those who champion left-wing ideology are replaced by sanctions when the object of the protest goes against the official narrative.
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